Petition calls for removal of rape case judge

Benjamin Lawrence Petty accepted a plea deal in connection with the sexual assault of a 13-year-old girl. (KTEN)

SULPHUR, Okla. -- A petition to force a Murray County district judge to be removed from the bench has now been signed by more than 50,000 people.

District 20 Judge Wallace Coppedge presided over the case of Benjamin Lawrence Petty, who had pleaded guilty to brutally raping and sodomizing a 13-year-old girl at Falls Creek Church Camp in Murray County back in 2016. He could have faced up to life in prison for the offense.